reporting on people that purchase as much or more as 500 rounds of ammunition so we cannot only track those people that are buying ammunition, but frequency of purchase as you can stockpile that ammunition. it is not going to be the -- any sort of suspension of the constitution. this is just smart, thoughtful community coming together with law enforcement so we know what people are doing and a simple question can be asked and if it's for target practice, that's fine as long as it's not the most lethal ammunition. the leadership in this country, you know, we've been divided for a while over small ideas and now we're coming together unfortunately after this tragedy over a big idea. and that's gun control. can't tell you how much the major city police chiefs of this country support the mayor. senator feinstein, congress, state senators, and mayors like mayor lee that we're fortunate

to have, on gun control. senator feinstein will re-submit the assault weapons ban which bans 100 specific assault rifles, including the weapon used in sandy hook and high-capacity magazines of 10 rounds or more. there's other things that we as major city chiefs would like to see happen, such as the banning of internet ammo sales. we'd like to see in-person transactions. the record of sales and licensing of ammo vendors, and other things i can talk to you about off line. we are doing everything we can to make san francisco a safer place and reduce violent crime. the mayor spoke of ipo, which he introduced at the very beginning of august. and for the first august in memory and maybe even on record, we suffered zero homicides in that month. unfortunately one homicide in the city is too many. we've had 67 this year to date,

which is up over the last couple years, record low. still the best we've had in 10 years absent those record lows. gun violence is down 4% in san francisco. largely because of community partnership. things like our gun tip line which i'll give you, 575-4444 and things like the gun buy back program. if you don't think that one of these guns or any of the other 2 96 * guns that were recovered here of the 300 guns that chief howard jordan and youth uprising were able to get over there weren't going to fall into the hands of somebody that might use them, you're betting against the odds. the shooter in newtown, connecticut, got those guns from his home, legally purchased firearms. we took 2 96 guns off the street here thankful to dr. joe marshall and omega boys club.

over 150 handguns, almost 150 rifles and shotguns, these are not what people keep saying aren't going to make a difference. this is absolutely making a difference. and i would say to the nra or anybody that says, hey, this isn't the problem, if it's not the problem, it will make a difference, it should make a difference banning them. let's err on the side of caution, keep the kids safe. thank you. >> let me also echo again my appreciation for commissioner dr. joe marshall because omega boys club has been a great partner. they are part of our effort to organize commutes, to intervene as early as we can, and i totally agree with the chief that these particular guns, if you look at them up front and close, you'll see they really shouldn't be in anybody's homes. they're designed to kill folks. many of them military style. i think to bring home the real

story here is dr. andrei campbell of our san francisco general hospital, and also on staff at ucsf. he is at the forefront of world class trauma center that we have. and if you go day to day, and certainly with the 67 homicides that we have with the numbers of bodies that were showing up and people have shown up, many of which he saved, many of which he couldn't save that were victims of bullets and violence and gun violence in our city, you know that that's another good reason as to why we need to do as much prevention as we can. dr. campbell. >> good afternoon, mayor lee, supervisor cohen, chief suhr, members of the press. my name is dr. andrei campbell and i've worked at san francisco general hospital for the past 19 years as a trauma surgeon. before i came to san francisco

i worked in new york. i have 24 years of experience of caring for victims in two major cities in our great country. this week all of us have watched with horror the events in newtown, connecticut, with great sadness as we learned the devastation that one person brought on that quiet community. i've seen the devastation that guns have visited on victims of crime. my heart goes out to all the victims and their families as they struggle to understand what has happened over the last week. san francisco general hospital is the only trauma center in the city and county of san francisco and in the u.s. it is, in fact, i think, the best trauma center in the united states. we stand ready 24/7 to care for any injured patient in the city and county of san francisco. we also at general hospital are caring for uninsured and underinsured people who come in after injured. we also represent -- i also represent thousands of dedicated physicians, surgeons, nurses, administration and therapists who care for the hundreds of thousands of patients who come to our hospital.

i have dedicated my life to providing care for injured patients in our community. it is truly a team effort to provide care for the victims of vie lertctionv crime. we rely heavily on our many trained professionals 20 help us do our work each day. after persons injured due to shooting after the scene, people go there, public firefighters and servants. the trauma surgeons, emergency physicians anesthesiologists, orthopedic surgeons, nurses, therapists and many, many others who come to help us work on the patient. and we do this for every single person who is injured. we bring all the resources there. we can to make sure we can save as many people as we can each day. the reality and sadness is we may save many, but we can't save everyone. over the years i have seen massive increase in the fire power witnesses before you today. these guns are more powerful and destruction are profound.

from ak-47s, other assault-style weapons, hand gun, extended clips, hollow point bullets, black talon weapons, bullets and other things like that, i've seen them and the work that -- the problems they cause each day. the larger weapons create absolute devastation in the victims. when they strike a victim, it's like a bomb going off. i struggle with all the dedicated team members to save their lives as it's real a a battle against life and death. sometimes they have overwhelming mortal wounds and i cannot save them. we save a lot, but we can't save everyone. they have massive chest, abdominal, leg, head wounds that become -- that are the consequences of these large weapons in froth of you. -- front of you. they are the victims, but their families that are also injured when or have problems after the shooting. when a victim dies it leaves a hole in the family.

they can't ever forget the devastated mothers, father's, sisters, brothers, that are struggling with loss. the way of a mother is unique sound as she screams, my baby is dead, my baby is dead. * wail it is a terrible sound, i wish i would have to never hear it again. part of the process of making sure these lethal weapons are off the street. if we save the patient, they have to deal with many operations, icu care, post tau matt he -- posttraumatic stress. head injuries, disfiguring operations and long-term care and many, many other serious problems. we cannot forget the physical scars, but there's also emotional scars after they are injured. at san francisco general hospital a number of gunshot wounds has declined in recent years. in 2007 we cared for 381 shooting victims in our emergency department.

2011, the last year we have data on, that number is now 182 shooting victims. while this is a substantial drop, i submit to you that one is too many. these numbers represent the patients who are transported to the hospital, not the victims who died at the scene or do not come in for care. many people are killed from homicides, but suicide taking one's life with weapons is much more common in the united states. it is a silent killer since more than twice as many people die of suicide than homicide historically in the united states. there is an hep dim i can of violent crime committed with guns and is a serious public health problem that we must confront head on. * it is incidents like this past week bring these terrible crimes out in the public, but the reality is people are killed every day in this country with weapons that permanently change the lives of the families that they are with. in conclusion, i would like to

thank the mayor for inviting me out to stand with supervisor cohen, police chief sur, to support sensible gun control. the trauma center stands ready to care for victims. any initiative that can reduce guns in my opinion will make the streets and the cities and counties -- cities like san francisco a much safer place to live. i thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you, doctor. today we're focused on ammunition and immediate interruption in the behavior that law enforcement advises us and sees every day that leads to more violence. in the weeks and months to come, the board and the mayor's office will be introducing both more ideas and legislation and resolutions to support federal and state efforts in the same direction. at the same time, we'll also be introducing through our budget

support for an ongoing organizing in our community to support nonlaw enforcement efforts to reduce violence, whether it's education, social services, housing, none of that escapes us as to their link in efforts to reduce violence in our society. with that i want to thank everybody for coming today. and i would ask everyone in san francisco, if not the whole region and the state, to please join us in a national moment of silence that will occur tomorrow morning east coast time, it will be 9:30 a.m., and here in san francisco it will be 6:30 a.m. for a national moment of silence to remember all the victims in sandy hook. of course, at the same time, remember all the victims at our own locally it victims of gun violence. and before and after this moment of silence we will be active doing the things we need to do to reduce violence in our city. thank you.

>> it goes back to the 18 50s fisherman's wharf, meg's wharf which was the place in san francisco to enjoy yourself. eventually fisherman's wharf moved into youctionv to where the explore or yum is and it moved back up here. but in the 1950s, the port was coming out of world war ii, was

trying to understand what container station was going to look like, and they commissioned a study that looked at the economic impact of the port to the city. * that sounds familiar, does continue, mr. mayor? and particularly to how the port could participate in the city's tour and commercial industries as well as their cargo industry, and specifically that report found that this area, since we were moving into containerization, were no longer really needed for cargo, that cargo would be better off being in the southern waterfront. and we would have this area devoted to more commercial activities, entertainment, dining, et cetera. and, so, in the early 1950s, the port moved forward and had the franciscan restaurant built. as part of that. and this area we are standing on was an old timber wharf that supported parking for the fisherman's wharf area, of course, all the other

restaurants developed over time. * and this old wonderful car ferry slip used to move railcars on and off of the pier over to tiberon and to richmond and other parts of the bay. so, for the last 50 years or 60 years if you're really doing the math, the port has been trying to keep regenerating our area and making it more of a great magnet, not just for tourism which is our core industry, but for locals alike. so, we really believe this promenade which, by the way, is a seawall. and you'll be happy to know that the old wooden seawall underneath has been repaired after over 100 years. so, all of you who own property across the street have another 100 years of safety to go. and all the rest of us get to enjoy that. and we truly are coming to where the land and the water's edge meet and enjoying it in a great new way with vistas of

alcatraz, new year's eve and america's cup. it is my great honor to welcome all of you and to introduce our wonderful mayor who has been such a catalyst for projects such as this. mayor ed lee. (applause) >> thank you, monique. thank you for being such a great historian of all the space here. that's wonderful. well, welcome to $10 million of great public investment. [laughter] >> even, even the skies parted a little bit for us. but i'm glad to see port president david chiu here to join us, our rec and park commission, mark and phil ginsburg from rec and park, doreen, thank you very much, rodney from the planning commission, thank you, rodney for your leadership as well. to present and past commissioners of our port as well, you've all been part of this legacy of history building down here. and i also want to say thank you to vortex, the contractors who are here.

they represent all the powell drivers who have been working really hard. and the great personal thank you to public works and he's the city engineer. he kept everybody together working with monique and the rec and park and everybody else to make sure that the workers, all 75 of them, working hard to get this done, along with our local contractors, matt hughey, thank you, mh for being part of this wonderful work as well. it's been long in coming. it's another example of how we use and how we have responsibly used our recreation and park open space bond from 2008. our clean and safe bond program. i know phil is delighted because we got another one passed this past november. it's a great part of our history. (applause) >> but this was one of those early projects that we started out. we wanted to reconnect. we saw the very piers and the underlying part of it decaying.

as moe meek so eloquently said, we have to nourish it, we have to reinvest in it. we got a good look at what we needed to do when the bcdc came out with the planning part of this, their contribution to this $10 million of investment. when we started planning with them, the bcdc, we honored that with, again, completing this wonderful project. so, i'm here not only as a cheer leader, but to thank all of the different elements that come together that are required to come together for successful project. and even as a few months ago, i know monique was saying, god, we've got to keep pushing, keep pushing on this. and we did. everybody came together and we pushed for it. we're grateful that the contractors worked with us to do so and they stepped in to make sure things got done. even frankenstein is here to help celebrate this. (applause) >> our street performers, and

i've been talking with monique, i've got a new invested role with our street performers that we're going to have working with public works and all of our great san francisco agencies. everybody is here today. i know what it means to really complete these projects, to keep them going. and this is, while it sounds like a lot of money, it's actually a small part of our whole capital planning that goes on and continues to go on. we honor all of our public because they do allow the city to invest their money properly, get these things done, honor them with completed projects. this is $10 million which released from general obligation bonds to go on to another great, another capital planning that we're doing. and now i know the port is going to celebrate because they got $35 million invested in -- 195 million in the next bond that we have to create even better and more own spaces that we have.

right around the corner is jefferson public realm. we're going to get that done as well. we're going to honor what rod has been reminding me about it, all of the great institutions we have in the fisherman's wharf. we get to recreate a new vibrant street that blends vehicle traffic with pedestrian and bicyclists. all on the eve of welcoming america's cup, continued every year with fleet week. it's wonderful, wonderful time to be part of this great city. i want to thank all of you for coming and joining in this great celebration. it's wonderful to be in san francisco, to be a part of it, and to create more excitement for future generations, and to lead the city in much better shape than when we first started working with it. * leave thank you for being part of this great celebration. (applause) >> thank you, mayor lee, very, very much. next i would very much like to introduce another of our key

supporters, our district 3 supervisor president of the board of supervisors and one of our two representatives to the bcdc commission, with commissioner ann, and critical to successes such as these. please join me in welcoming president dave chiu. (applause) >> happy holidays, everyone. i was thinking of inviting mayor lee back on the stage to sing along with this band a rendition of sitting by dock on the bay. what do you think, mr. mayor? [laughter] >> but instead what we thought we wanted to do is, of course, sing the praises of our community. mayor lee has thanked all of the amazing city departments that have come together between rec and park and the port and, of course, our dpw department. i want to thank the mayor and your commissioners for really helping to see this through. and i want to take a moment and thank the community. so many of you here are our merchants, are our members of labor, are our neighborhood leaders who have really come together. we see representatives from our

hotels, folks who represent every type of business along in waterfront big and small. but for your support over the years, we wouldn't be here today. when i came in office four years ago, i was told by the constituents of these neighborhoods that we needed to invest in our waterfront. and four years later we're on the eve of cutting the ribbon for the explore atorium. * we just passed a bond measure that will bring two waterfront parks a few blocks from here. this won be possible but for the vision and the foresight that we all have about what we want a 21st century waterfront to look like. i want to thank you for that. i don't see any of my colleagues here. i'm going to say the following. i think this may be the most beautiful vista vantage points not just in san francisco, but in the entire world. and thank you for being part of it. (applause) >> thank you very much,

president chiu. and now it is my honor to introduce the president of our port commission. here today with former supervisor and current port commissioner leslie katz, president doreen has been a great inspiration for our port. she sits on a number of very important boards in the city, and yet has worked tirelessly on our behalf. and, so, please join me in welcoming president doreen wuho. (applause) >> hello, good afternoon. and i'm really here to thank everybody on behalf of the port commission. i haven't been on the commission that long. i know this project started many, many years ago. but as i've learned on the commission, these projects do take a long time. there is a lot of money involved and there is a tremendous partnership. and you heard all the departments that are mentioned. but i'm also here to thank i guess the previous leaders besides our mayor here. we had mayor brown, mayor newsome, but we also want to thank for their vision that has led us here today. i also want to recognize a

couple previous port commissioners. ann hall stead and rodney fong. i learned we all work closely as a team to get to the vision you heard everybody mention. i'm really excited today to be on the port commission because there is truly a renaissance going on up and down the waterfront including projects like this which will provide beautiful public access and all the other things that are going on. i can't think of a more exciting time to be involved with the city and the waterfront and to be on the port commission. so, i just want to recognize and thank also the port staff. there are many of them here today, monique and her staff, and we have members in the development and real estate and i think again it takes tremendous amount of teamwork to make these things happen. and i think again, that is my message to thank everybody. thank you very much. (applause) >> i'd like to also point out former commissioner fx crowley who is here, thank you president for your kind remarks. now, the mayor mentioned this

wouldn't have been possible without the generosity of the voters of san francisco in approving the first general obligation bond that had something in it for the port. and leading the charge on that was our very own general manager of rec and park phil ginsburg joined with the president of the rec and park commission mark beale. (applause) >> good afternoon, everybody. it's such a pleasure to join monique and our port commissioners and the mayor and port staff and the department of public works celebrating this incredible investment in the port, which is such a significant part of our treasured open space portfolio in san francisco. but most of all, mark beale and i are here to thank the community, to thank all of you for supporting park bonds, the 2008 clean and safe neighborhoods park bonds provided almost all of the $10 million of investment in where we are standing today. and thanks to the 72% of san franciscans that voted yes in

november of '12, we have another couple million dollars that will work on a little ways down the south area. you can see it. we'll be able to renovate the next piece of this incredible vista and open space. so, we just want to celebrate our tremendous sister agency. here's to open space and here's to recreation and here's to vistas and congrats, everybody. thank you. (applause) >> thank you very much, phil. now, keep an eye out behind me. the vessel has been out of range. before you get too much of their competitive advantage. also i notice the fire boat is going to be coming in to help us celebrate shortly. but next i would like to introduce to you our former port commissioner president of the department of city planning's commission, president of the wachs museum here in fisherman's wharf, a fourth generation san franciscan, somebody who grew

up here in fisherman's wharf, please welcome rodney fong. [cheering and applauding] >> thank you. thank you, monique. you know what, how many fisherman's wharf people are here? raise your hands. so, everyone is very excited here. but i think for all of us, we have to be extremely excited because we -- i can't think of a better word. we actually have a new front yard here at fisherman's wharf, a place to gather to have music, a place to celebrate things. for millions of people who come to the wharf every years, they'll have the ability to enjoy the spot. i'm looking at dan. from your pencil drawing is what this space can be and working with rec and park to fix that idea. congratulations to you and all the port staff. monique, thank you, measuring engineering staff, you guys got a lot done. this is an exciting day for everybody in san francisco. extremely exciting day for folks at fisherman's wharf. i thank the mayor. we will use this well. thank you. >> all right. (applause)

>> thank you very much, president fong. our last speaker is one of our best partners in san francisco. he represents the department of public works. he is the city engineer. without the department of public works, cruise terminal project at piers 27-29 would not be possible. they are probably working on about 40 projects with us right now. we are very much in their debt. and to say a few words, please help me welcome, rod, city engineer. (applause) >> give us $4 million and we'll show you how fast we can spend it. [laughter] >> this is how much we spent on this project since october of this year, in the last 2, 2-1/2 months. so, back in september monique and i sat and discussed this project and we agreed to set a very aggressive deadline, which is completing this project before thanksgiving and opening the promenade to hundreds and thousands of people to enjoy during the holidays.

so, this is what -- the result is what you see today. we managed to do this through sound project management with strong collaboration between port and dpw and through the -- using two procedures, that's our mayor has been promoting for the last 12 months. one is broadening of construction projects and the second is prompt payment. so, when we started in early october, we gathered the entire project team. the contractor his subs, suppliers, the port staff, the consultants, dpw and we agreed on a plan to move forward. we agreed on the deadline and on a weekly basis, we met to hash out every single detail so we can meet this deadline. the contractor told us if you want to move fast, you need to pay us fast. instead of the 230 day city policy that we use on other projects, on this project we managed to pay the contractor within five days.

so, and like i said, this is what you see, you know, today. i want to thank mayor ed lee for his vision and leadership and for his directive to make the partnering on construction projects and prompt payments and to make it much, much easier for small and large contractors to do business in the city. i want to thank monique and the port for their confidence in public works and for the strong relationship and partnership that we forged through completing this project. i'd like to acknowledge the hard work of vortex, [speaker not understood], john miller and alex with vortex. i'd like to thank matt hughey with [speaker not understood], and i'd like to especially thank my public works team, ray louie, laura lombardi, [speaker not understood], and tim o'sullivan. with them i can tackle the most complex pro